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Bars where Pete has had a Drink (3,641 bars; 1,586 bars in Seattle) - Click titles below for Lists:

Bars where Pete has had a drink

Sunday, May 01, 2016

#2446 - The Carousel Bar, New Orleans - 3/17/2014

The Carousel Bar, Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans

Try the: Vieux Carre

The Hotel Monteleone claims that the Carousel Bar is "the only revolving bar in New Orleans." One wonders how many thousands of visitors to various French Quarter bars over the decades have arrived at a state where that claim would seem dubious. But let's stipulate that the Carousel is probably the only one that appears to revolve even when one arrives completely sober.

Beyond the kitch, the Carousel Bar delivers some quality cocktails, and shares a notable place in both cocktail culture and literary history. In the former category its contributions include the invention of the Vieux Carre. In the latter, authors who have rotated through the bar include Hemingway, Faulkner, Capote, Tennessee Williams, Anne Rice, Stephen Ambrose, and John Grisham. References to the bar are contained in Hemingway's "Night Before Battle," Ambrose's "Band of Brothers," Eudora Welty's "A Curtain of Green," and Rebecca Wells' "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood."

The Carousel Bar, New Orleans

The rotating bar was constructed in 1949 and has been substantially remodeled a couple times, most recently in 2011. It should go without saying that we should make a point to support carousel bars wherever we may find them, and your New Orleans checklist should include stopping in for a Vieux Carre.